The squeal of brakes screeched through the Georgia night as a dark van sped around a corner. The wail of sirens from behind was created by the couple of Atlanta police cars that were trailing the van. As they sped up upon it, the back flipped open and a hail of gunfire erupted, forcing the police to swerve away. One went too far, slamming into a building, and the other kept up with the chase. A couple of gunshots came next and the car's tire blew out, sending it skidding out of control and to an eventual halt.

Inside the van the occupants - a gang of bank robbers - cheered and whooped. "Man, I knew this was gonna be good!" one of them shouted.
The driver laughed, looking back toward his compatriot. "Yeah, cops here are slow and there's no damned superheroes around to ruin things. We're home free! I can't wait to see what...."
"Shit! Look out!"
The call of the man in the passenger seat caused the driver to turn just in time to see something standing in the road. He barely got a time to get a glimpse before a big metal fist slammed into the grill of the van. Aluminum crumpled and the engine cut off, crushed within the hood of the van. The robbers were thrown to the bottom of the van, and only the seatbelts of the men in front prevented them from going through the windshield.

They now looked forward to see what'd stopped them. It was, surprisingly, a massive figure clearly made of gray metal. It had no paint and no markings, with the only non-gray part being a blue visor-like piece on the head. There were some dents in the torso, giving something of a beat-up appearance to the thing. The robbers piled out, frantically clawing for their automatics. "Shoot it! Shoot it!" They pulled their triggers and bullets struck the monstrosity, just to bounce off it's armored skin. The massive metal thing stomped forward, clanging loudly, and it's massive arm reached forward and snatched one robber, tossing him into two of his compatriots, all three slamming into the nearby wall and falling dazed and nearly unconscious. His weapon came loose and ended up in the robot's grip. The thing took it in each hand and broke it over it's massive armored knee. It whirred audibly when looking toward the last robbers. They poured their fire on. "This suit has a diamonide coating, even cop-killing ammo just bounces off," a rough, electronic voice remarked. "You might as well throw the things at me."
The men kept firing out of pure fright until they ran out of ammo. Finally they threw their guns down and began to run.
The metal suit jumped. It didn't just jump, though; plumes of flame erupted from it's feet and it became airborne, turning in mid-flight and landing in the path of the fleeing robbers once more. The suit's right arm lifted and a section of the forearm lifted upward, revealing a nozzle with a small flame appearing before it. "I'm not wealthy, so I can't afford a really good energy cannon with stun settings. I only have flamethrowers. Now, do you surrender, or do you get served up extra crispy?"

The men dropped to their knees. Behind the metal man red and blue lights flashed. The wail of sirens grew louder. As the cop cars pulled up, a few bystanders from a nearby fast food joint came out and watched in amazement. One kid finally shouted out, "Cool! It's the Panzer Pyro!"
A cheer came from the crowd. A semi-attractive teenage girl even shouted, "You always set me on fire! Marry me!", amongst the clamor. The police got out of their cars, guns, pointed at the subdued robbers, and the Panzer Pyro flew off into the night sky.

It was a simple, unassuming suburban neighborhood in Atlanta. Everyone was inside asleep - or nearly so - and nobody could hear the buffered hum of the "Panzer Pyro"'s leg jets as it flew into a backyard in one of the smaller houses of the neighborhood. The robot stomped into the shed in the back.

Inside was an unassuming young man with short, greasy dark blond hair. He suffered from a slight case of acne and was standing over a table with a device upon it. He looked up. "Cool, you're back."

"What are you doing up this late? You should be getting home."

"Just waiting for you to get back to see if you need any repairs. Oh, and, I wanted to install this." He patted the device on the table. "I made you a stun gun!"

A groan came from inside the suit. Two metal fists gripped the locks at the base of the neck and pulled them, releasing the helmet. With a hiss it was pulled away. A head of shoulder-length purple hair appeared, possessing Oriental features and with skin that confirmed Oriental ancestry, if not entirely. Looking it over, the suit pilot's voice was now clearly feminine. "It'll never work. Power hookup's not compatible."

"Well, Ms. Chan, I worked really hard on it. How can I make it work?"

"Oh, I don't know," Amy Chan said irritably. "It's late, I just had to deal with some annoying bank robbers and the usual crowds. Another girl propositioned me for marriage." She pressed a key ordinarly covered by the helmet, and the back of the armored suit opened up. She pulled her arms out first and then removed her legs one at a time, hopping down. She was in a pink "Hello Kitty" T-shirt and gym shorts.

"I thought you didn't like those things?" Yancy asked.

"I like the irony that I fight criminals and set them on fire while wearing a 'Hello Kitty' shirt," Amy replied sarcastically. "As for you. Get. Home. You're out far too late and your parents are going to start getting suspicious."

They were of the same age, but while Amy had her own (mortgaged) home sustained by a combination of inheritance funds, investment returns created by them, and her freelance design and maintainance work, Yancy lived in his parent's garage down the street. He was smart in his own way but completely unambitious and, frankly, annoying.

"Oh, okay," Yancy answered. As they left the shed and walked their own ways, Yancy to the fence hole that would let him skip across to his parents' yard and Amy to her back door, he asked, "Hey, can I come back tomorrow and...."

"Yeah, fine, whatever. Just don't wake me up before two." With that, Amy slammed the back door behind her, leaving Yancy to return home on his own.

The next day Amy awoke at two-thirty sharp. Yawning and grudingly kicking away the light sheet she wore over her night clothes, she stumbled down into the kitchen to yank up a snack. She quickly realized she had little food left and missed college, when her roommates always kept the pantry stocked for her to raid when she pleased. Still, she managed to grab a bag of cookies and a small glass of coke. She peeked at her "work schedule" and saw it thankfully empty. Her repairs to the Davisons' family computer had held and their sons hadn't yet repopulated it with malware in their attempts to rebuild the porn collections she had to delete every time she did work on it. Tomorrow she was due at the Rockwells', whosw daughter had caused more malware infestations through her hunt for MP3s of bad boy band music, and thankfully her allowance was rich enough that Amy could blackmail another $20 or so out of her to keep her collection of written superhero slash a secret (Amy was quite sure that the Omega Paladin and Goomba did not do the things Jenny Rockwell liked to write about them doing, nor did she like to think about it). And the network at that Finch Richards & Weinstein law firm would probably need another patching up....

Though constantly cleaning up the messes caused by computer ne'er-do-wells became irritating, at least it gave Amy more cash between major projects. She was hoping to get in a bid on that new Fahr Industries robotics project, since they hired out freelance work. And Hawk Electronics was soon going to be hiring freelancers to do a project for a new military missile; that would pay really well, and thanks to the increased network system they had she could do her work through their annex at the former Marietta-Douglass facility in Marietta.

With food and drink in hand, Amy returned to her room and plopped herself in front of her computer. She signed onto AIM with her usual screenname - "Pyro Maya1C" - and was quickly invited by "Col Lukashenko" into a chat titled "theworldcrisis". And so the chat began:

Col Lukashenko: Amy-chan!
MarshalParnell: of these people continues to amaze me.
MarshalParnell: Ah, hello Amy.
Pyro Maya1C: Was just seeing who else was on. I didn't think there would be a chat.
BeoHui 412: *glomps Amy*
Pyro Maya1C: *sets Beo on fire*
Col Lukashenko: *snark*
Col Lukashenko: *yanks Amy away* You can't have her, she's mine!
Pyro Maya1C: It won't work if I protest I'm not a lesbian, will it?
MarshalParnell: Obviously not.
JerithFlame has entered the room.
JerithFlame: Ladykiller is an idiot.
MarshalParnell: And the sky is blue. What did he do now?
Pyro Maya1C: I know what his name means, but I really, really hate it anyway.
Col Lukashenko: Don't worry, Amy-chan, I'll protect you. *snuggles*
Pyro Maya1C: Anyway, I've got to go make a grocery run. Just to see, anyone heard from Steve?
MarshalParnell: Still nothing. He did say something about personal problems and a lack of online access time.
Pyro Maya1C: Oh well. I'll be back tonight, probably. Have a good day.

Amy clicked the "X" button in the corner of the chat window to close it. A quick check of her contact list told her that her boyfriend in Iowa was away, probably at work. She put her profile on away and went to get dressed.

Once dressed Amy decided to check the shed to see if Yancy had indeed returned, and she found him sleeping in a chair, snoring loudly, with the suit laid out. The dents had been removed and, much to her dislike, the "stun gun" he'd fashioned was now attached to the lower left arm of her suit. "I liked that dent," she muttered before assembling the suit and towing it to her van. She purposely had the shed and garage linked so she could move the suit to and from her van when she needed it. It was annoying to lug it, but it was something she did just to be on the safe side. However, since she wasn't going so far this time, she would leave it assembled so she could, if necessary, fly it to her location.

After setting the suit up and acquiring the remote, Amy drove out of her neighborhood and into the bustling streets of the Greater Atlanta area. It was not a quick distance to a nearby Publix, nestled between large buildings.
Mumbling a greeting to the cute smiling door greeter-girl, Amy went about her business shopping, acquiring the usual mix of microwave health foods and snacks.

But when she got to the checkout line, Amy noticed the other customers were perturbed by something, and one good sniff told her what - a putrid odor. Gasping and holding her nose closed, Amy looked around and soon found the source. There was a collection of four figures standing around the exit door, which was blocked off by a manager and two of his employees, including the door greeter Amy had seen earlier. They had a cart full of food with them. "You can't take those out without paying for them," the manager said. "I mean, you're obviously idiots to think you could, so if you let go of that cart I'll let you go without calling the police."

"You have no right to bar us from taking food! Food is the right of all and it is immoral to force us to pay for it!" One with an annoying accent did some kind of kung-fu pose. "Now stand aside or face the wrath of my Gaia's Wrath technique!"
One of the employees rotated his finger around his right temple in the old universal gesture of "insane". Amy watched with interest even as the cashier rang up her purchase.

"Everyone! Refuse to pay for this food, it is yours by right!" a squeaky feminine voice called out. The one girl in the group, a deathly thin thing, faced the checkout lines. She continued her screechings while her compadres - including the smelly one - continued their standoff with the manager.
Paying for her stuff, Amy left quickly, watching the confrontation as she went and wondering who in the Hell these types were. She got out to her van and was loading it when a cop car pulled up. Two cops confronted the would-be shoplifters, nightsticks drawn.
"Vengeance of Orphaned Deer!" was the sudden cry and both cops were knocked aside by a vicious round-house kick from the weirdo with the kung-fu pose. The manager and his employees went to their aid and suddenly collapsed, gagging as a visible odor surrounded them, emanating from the armpits and fingers of a slinky guy in the foursome. Even from her distance Amy could smell the horrid stench, and it was causing people closer by to fall to their knees gasping. Amy jumped into the van and sped away, slipping over to the side of the next building. A pulling of a switch caused a cover to drop down over her license plate. From there she took out her remote and activated her suit.

Carefully she controlled its flight, using the stealth buffers for the leg jets and bringing it around the back of the store to avoid getting easily noticed (though, given it was broad daylight, that would still happen here and there). It was risky to do this in daylight period, but she had no choice at the moment. Those weirdos - whoever they were - had to be stopped.

Her suit landed and Amy quickly had the remote open the back cavity and raise the helmet. Taking a last look to make sure nobody was standing around Amy jumped in, fitted her arms into the arm cavities, and lowered the helmet again. The digital readout in the helmet visor told her that Yancy had, surprisingly, given the "stun gun" a good hook-up job. She'd make sure to try it out on those weirdos.

As a last action, Amy set the most expensive piece of equipment she'd ever cobbled together on - the holographic projector that made it look like someone was sitting in the van reading. One of these days, when she had the money, she'd really have to try and put a system in to drive the van remotely so it could go home (just had to make sure the program obeyed traffic laws and kept the speed limit, didn't need the police pulling it over).

Prepared, Amy kicked on the suit's leg jets and flew over one building toward the Publix, where a crowd was running out. A few more cops had arrived. As they brought their guns up firework-like light bursts went off around their eyes, blinding them. A cry of "Homeless Elephant Gores Developer!" was followed by another police officer getting kicked aside, gagging as he was on the overpowering stench of the one weirdo with stink powers.

Naturally, when people saw Amy in her suit, a cheer came, and the cops looked on as she landed between them and the four assembled weirdos in their raggedy clothing. "So..... who are you?" she asked, her voice now gender-neutral from her suit's voice synthesizer.
One of them stepped forward - presumably the leader. "I am the Gaian Cruusader," he said in a really annoying voice, flexing his puny body like he was a strongman. "We are the Freegan Four, devoted to defending the right to acquire free food from capitalists everywhere!"

"You've got to be kidding me. Dumpster-diver supervillains." Amy crossed her arms. "Go back to your gender studies classes and leave the sane world alone, kiddies."

"Foul villain, ally of the thieves!" The martial-artist ran forward. "You will now face my Gaia's Wrath fighting technique!" With that melodramatic pronouncement, he leapt forward as if to deliver a jumping kick. "Great Eagle claws poacher!"

Amy lowered her arms and allowed the martial-artist's right foot to collide head on with her armored chest, when her audio sensors played a cracking sound for her. She barely felt the impact with the mass of her suit while he simply dropped in front of her. He screamed and clutched his ankle.
Amy reached down and picked him up by the scruff of his neck. "I'm in a diamonide-coated titanium power suit. Did you think you could just jump-kick me like I was some street thug?" She tossed him back toward his friends.

The deathly-thin girl gasped. "How could you?! Bruce is so nice, and you are so mean!" She raised her hands and small bursts of light erupted around Amy. They might've been blinding had her visor not automatically dimmed them for her, and the thermal sensors told her they were harmless. "Ha! You can't see, evildoer!"

"Let's get two things straight, girlie. First, I'm in a powered suit with a visor, just how did you think that was going to work?" Amy lifted her left arm and activated Yancy's stun gun, just to see if it'd work. An arc of electricity erupted from it and enveloped the Freegan. She squealed and collapsed. "Secondly, you're the evildoer and I'm the hero. Keep that straight."

The "Gaian Crusader" went to her, shouting "Moonchild!", while his last standing comrade confronted Amy. "I am John Lovesalot," he said. "I am a metahuman, and with my powers I will make you feel the stench that Mankind has forced upon the Earth!"

He was exerting himself, clearly. Visible stench was coming from his body and moving toward Amy. She jumped out of the way and landed on the nearby roof. "I do have an air-filter, genius. But I don't want you to stink up my suit either." She lifted her right arm and flipped up the flamethrower gun, pointing it down. "I wonder if all that stench makes your clothing more flammable? Let's find...."

"No!" The Gaian Crusader got in the way. "I see that I have no choice. I must defeat you by making you feel.... the love!"

Amy frowned. "If you drop your pants I will fire this thing."

The Gaian Crusader concentrated, and in such a way he looked constipated. Suddenly the gathered crowd began to laugh and hug one another, then kissing, and - yes - some humping. Amy watched in particular disgust at "Lovesalot" as he rubbed his crotch up against the Gaian Crusader's hip. "See? Even you, in your evil metal suit, cannot withstand the power of love!"

There was a yawn. "I'm not feeling moved. Not at all."

He looked at her. He was sweating. "Impossible. Nobody can resist the power of love that I possess!"

"I'm a frickin' robot suit, moron. Now, I find that really disturbing, so...." She pulled the trigger with her right hand to fire the flamethrower. A tongue of flame appeared and she waved it vertically over the Gaian Crusader and Lovesalot. They screamed as the flames covered them. At once the Gaian Crusader's power failed and people regained themselves. On the ground, the Gaian Crusader and Lovesalot were rolling frantically, trying to extinguish the flames. Amy lifted her right arm and a second nozzle built in the lower part of her forearm appeared, and from it a fine chemical mist erupted and coated the burning Freegans. With the flames quenched she fired her leg jets and flew away toward the back of the Publix, hearing the cheers of the onlookers.

Once at her van Amy had quickly sat the suit in the back and extricated herself from there to the driver's seat. She looked at a bag of groceries she'd accidentally set the suit's elbow on and sighed. "Dammit," she muttered. She'd have to go get bread on the way home.... or maybe she'd send Yancy out for some.

Either way she got home. Yancy had left to go back to his parents and this left her alone to pack her suit up and return inside. After making ramen noodles - yes, ramen, college habits died hard - Amy plopped herself back in front of her computer and brought up her AIM connections. A brief check to a news site confirmed the spread of the story of her fight with the Freegan Four and their arrest.

After a moment, she was back in the "theworldcrisis" chat.

BeoHui 412: *glomps Amy*
Pyro Maya1C: Didn't I set you on fire?
Col Lukashenko: Amy-chan!
Pyro Maya1C: This just happened in the Publix I shop at. Weird huh?
MarshalParnell: ......Oh dear. There are Freegan supervillains now?
Pyro Maya1C: Supervillains? I don't think they rate that.
Col Lukashenko: Did you see what happened, Amy-chan?

Amy sighed. It'd be fun to admit who she was, but she certainly didn't want to break the secret or risk some government agency finding out about her over an AIM chat log.

Pyro Maya1C: I was at a bit of a distance, actually. But I do remember the Panzer Pyro setting two of them on fire.
MarshalParnell: Ha!
JerithFlame: Setting Freegans on fire sounds good, though considering all the stuff they probably take, wouldn't it be some kind of pollution hazard?
Col Lukashenko: *snarks*
Pyro Maya1C: So.... what's going on? What topic has snatched the chat now?
BeoHui 412: Hail King Guy!
Col Lukashenko: We were just discussing the only successful ruler in all of sub-Saharan Africa.
MarshalParnell: Naturally, the UN refuses to recognize him, and his neighbors are dedicated to wiping him out.
MarshalParnell: If only Foggy Bottom wasn't filled with useless douchebags....
Pyro Maya1C: Ah..... that Roedecker guy.*1
JerithFlame: I still can't get over the whole "freegans on fire" bit.
Pyro Maya1C: Maybe they taste like chicken?
Col Lukashenko: And it's probably as rotten as the things they eat out of the dumpster.
TheDrunkRussian2001 has entered the room
TheDrunkRussian2001: Greetings, Comrades!
Pyro Maya1C: Hello.
Col Lukashenko: And now we have Fima. Amy was telling us about how Atlanta's local superhero set some metahuman Freegans on fire.
TheDrunkRussian2001: What? Do we finally have a hero who kills people? Because I can't see how they'd survive that covered in the gunk they'd get from crawling around in dumpsters.
Col Lukashenko: Then go set some freegans on fire to see. There should be plenty in New York.

Amy chuckled and continued to do so as her online friends traded one zinger for another. From there they went on to other topics, and she excused herself momentarily to go check up on her suit and to see if Yancy had returned yet.

She stepped into the garage and, sure enough, Yancy was looking over her suit. He looked up at her. "So, did it work?"

"Oh yes, it worked. Good job." Amy didn't bother to mention she'd need to modify the weapon to make it work better with her suit's power systems, given the drain it'd caused needlessly. "What did I say about taking out the dents?"

Yancy thought for a moment. "You said not to," he finally replied.

"Yes. So why are my dents gone?"

Yancy shrugged. "Oh, I noticed someone was making fun of them in a recent blog. So I wanted to make you look better."

Amy stared at him for a moment. "Yancy, some dickweed making fun of my dents isn't reason enough to ignore my requests, got it?"

Again he shrugged. Amy sighed. She walked up to her suit and was about to begin running a systems check when Yancy spoke up again. "Say, uh, you've never really told me the reason you took up crime-fighting in that suit."

"That's right, I haven't."

"Must be really big, huh? I mean, parents killed by crooks, or boyfriend, or something? Your life was ruined by crime."

Amy smacked a hand down on the suit. "Nothing so melodramatic." She walked up to Yancy, hands calmly at her sides. "Yancy, I find life annoying. I find people annoying. Petty, selfish little dicks really. But, most of all, I find criminals annoying. Of these three things, I can only reasonably set one on fire. Guess what it is?"
"Criminals, of course." Yancy looked at her closely. "So.... you became the Panzer Pyro because you like to set bad guys on fire?"

A pained expression came to Amy's face. "Please don't call me that. I don't know why they came up with that silly name and I'm not sure I want to know."
"I think it's kind of cool."
"You would," Amy muttered under her breath. Out loud, she found herself asking, "So, want something to eat?" Maybe then you'll go away for a while, again.
Yancy shrugged. Again. Amy hated his shrugging. "Okay, fine."

They walked into her house and Amy got a couple of ramen noddle packages. Yancy turned on the TV and there was a news report. "....standoff at the proposed nuclear power facility. Greenpeace activists have blocked off the Peachtree site and are apparently being led by a meta-human, who has caused what can only be described as unnatural bush and tree growth to thwart police attempts to...."
"Wow, look at that," Yancy said. Hearing no reply, he looked back and then smacked himself in the head.
He got to the door in time to see Amy getting her helmet on. She stomped out. "Good luck," he said to her.
"Thanks."
She flew off right then and there. Yancy shrugged and went back into the house for ramen, watching the reporter running from a sudden uprising of weeds.

The cheers and jeers of the Greenpeace activists went along with their costumed champion's efforts to disrupt construction. Roots and vines had ensnared bulldozers, police cars, and barred any attempt to get to the site. "We will not have this place here!" the costumed champion proclaimed with his supporters' cheers. "We cannot permit more of our Earth's nature to be despoiled by evil nuclear energy!"
"No!"
"We make our stand here and now! No more nuclear plants! No more radioactive waste!"
"No!"
"We will not leave this place until we are assured that the nuclear plant will not be built. We will not back down!"
"No!"
The chanting and slogan-shouting was irritating to Amy when she began picking them up. Flying over the site, she noticed all the crazy plant growth and knew she'd found the place. She swung her suit's feet downward and landed with a loud thump just within the "wall of nature" the Greenpeacer champion had made. "And who are you? The Jolly Green Midgit?"
The Greenpeace champion laughed at her. It was an annoying laugh. "No, metal one, I am the Rainbow Warrior!"
Amy snickered. "Oh.... so, um, are you gay or something?"
"No, I named myself in honor of those in our movement who died to prevent the nuclear...."
"...testing in the Pacific, yeah, I know." Amy crossed her arms. "Well, this is private property and you're not allowed to be here."
"Private property is not as important as the Earth!" the Rainbow Warrior countered angrily. "We must stop the spread of nuclear power before it destroys more of our Mother Earth!"
"Um, nuclear power is much cleaner than oil and stuff, all you need is good safety measures. God, it's not like we're the Soviet Union."
"We oppose that too!"
"Then, well, how do we get power? Windmills?"
"Heavens no! Windmills kill birds!"
"Solar energy?"
"Solar cells litter the landscape!"
"Dams?"
"Dams kill fish!"
Amy's eye twitched inside of her helmet. "You idiot, we can't just not use electricity! Modern society depends on it. Now, I'm going to be nice and offer you a chance to leave peacefully, or, I'll have to get rough." For emphasis Amy clanged the right fist of her suit against the left hand's palm.
"We will never give up!" The Rainbow Warrior's cry brought another "No!" from his supporters. "I'm afraid I have no choice but to restrain you with the power of nature!"
He promptly summoned up brush undergrowth that tightened around the legs of Amy's suit.
She looked down and back at him. "That's it?"
"Yes! Do you not see the indomitable strength of nature?"
That made Amy smirk. "Well, I don't know too much about nature, but I do know one thing." She raised her arm and her flamethrower nozzle appeared. "It's flammable."
She lowered her arm and set fire to the underbrush holding her. It burned away quickly and she stomped free. Then she raised her right arm and swept it over all of the vegetation the "Rainbow Warrior" had created, setting it alight too. The Greenpeace activists began to flee in fear of the flames, but the Rainbow Warrior stood still. He raised his hands and caused more underbrush to grow under Amy. She leapt into the air and fired her foot jets, setting the new underbrush on fire as well. Hovering in mid-air, she pointed her flamethrower at him while he raised a "shield" of small trees around himself. "Okay, I asked nicely and you ignored me. Now I set you on fire."
A bright tongue of flame struck out from her weapon. It set his shield of trees on fire first and then the Rainbow Warrior. He screamed horribly and ran out of his shielding, his arms flailing madly. Amy watched him burn and brought up her extinguisher, which she doused him with. Content that he had been subdued, she turned her attention to his wall of plants that she'd set on fire. She used what was left of her extinguisher fluid to quench those flames, leaving charred ash and a few surviving branches. Her work down, Amy flew off.

Also, a note that those chat excerpts are somewhat parodies of real AIM chats, and were done before Misty saw fit to include certain chat personalities into OMA: Anachronism, so that leads to some interesting possibilities in terms of the chat.

A further disclaimer: Yes, my persona is the Mistyverse version of the Incredible Hulk. Misty did that on her own with no input from me.

”A Radical is a man with both feet planted firmly in the air.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt

American Conservatism is about the exercise of personal responsibility without state interference in the lives of the citizenry..... unless, of course, it involves using the bludgeon of state power to suppress things Conservatives do not like.

Yancy was being annoying once again. Not purposely so, of course, but he never meant to annoy Amy; he just did.
They were in her workshop, slurping down ramen noodles after a morning of work in maintaining the suit. They were both sweating from the summer heat since the shed's A/C unit was on the verge of dying and the repairman still hadn't shown up. This was normally bad enough, but now Yancy had brought up one of his pet fanboy topics. "Do you ever get tired of fighting normal criminals and the occasional idiot metahuman?" he asked.
"No," was the short, curt reply.
"I mean, if you got to take on one of the heavy hitters out there... you'd probably be on national TV! You'd be known across the country, maybe even the world!"
Yancy's tone of voice was that of an awestruck child stuck in his daydreams, and Amy had about as much patience for that as she did for criminals. "I don't want to be known on national TV. That brings the heavy supervillains looking for fame and that means lots of property damage to the city. Atlanta isn't that nice, but I don't want to turn it into a metapowered colisseum like New York City or something." After taking a bite, she finished by saying, "Besides, I might get my ass kicked or even killed. I'm sure there are villains that can do things like crush me inside my armor suit. Do you want to be cleaning Me-Pulp out of the crushed remains of the suit?"
Yancy gulped. "Uh, well, I never thought of it that way. No, I don't. I really like you, Amy."
"Thank you for the consideration of my safety, and for you liking me, Yancy," Amy said in a gratified, sarcastic tone. She stood up. "I'm ready to take a break and go cool down. I'll be in my room slurping ramen if something happens. Please try not to blow up another fuse playing with your zapgun."

Yancy gave a non-commital shrug and Amy suppressed the urge to smack him on the head. Fuming, she stomped back to the house and cooked some ramen, thinking of how she might yet dump this annoying hanger-on. When she was done she made her way back up to the bedroom and her computer, where she logged into AIM and was soon invited to an AIM chat titled "battlestalinists".

For several minutes, as Amy checked a few web boards and webcomics, there was nothing in the chat. Finally she went back to it and began to type.

Pyro Maya1C: So, anything going on or is the chat dead?
JerithFlame: Chris is watching the blogs like a hawk for news on the UN deliberations about Nibabwe.
Col Lukashenko: Like we all don't already know what's going to happen. They'll declare Roedecker's government illegitimate. Because white men can't rule African countries, you know.*
Pyro Maya1C: Ah.... I see.
Pyro Maya1C: Anything else?
JerithFlame: Amy, did you know that the White Duke's trial is going on right now at the Federal Court in Atlanta?
Pyro Maya1C: The White Duke? Isn't he that white power supervillain from New Jersey who wears KKK robes as part of his uniform?
Col Lukashenko: That makes me chuckle every time I hear it....
Pyro Maya1C: So, any takers on how long before he escapes?
Col Lukashenko: Who knows? Sometimes I think we should just have them summarily executed.
JerithFlame: A bit extreme, but for some of them... it works.
Col Lukashenko: I mean it. How many billions of dollars in property damage have they caused? How many people have they killed? These are living weapons and in many cases are horribly unstable. They should be executed for the good of society, of all Mankind really.

At that point Yancy dashed into her room, throwing open the door with a bang. Amy shot him an angry glare and growled, "What have I told you about...."
"Check the news! Quick! There's fighting in the city!"
Amy followed him out and down to the living room. The local news was on, and she could see two large white-robed people tossing one police car into the other. "....are known associates of the famed White Duke, the white supremacist supervillain on trial today for the attempted massacre of the black population of a small town in Mississippi. Federal authorities are currently trying to keep them out of..."
"If there's anything I hate more than normal criminals, it's racists," Amy muttered as she darted toward the back door and the shed.

The restraints holding the superpowered limbs of the White Duke snapped in the grip of the massive Arminius. In the distance the equally-massive Cabal, his compatriot, laughed as bullets bounced off his chest. "Come on, Duke, let's get out of here and to the safe house." Arminius cracked his knuckles together, loud enough that it sounded more like someone's bones snapping. "The Zionist lackies we kill on the way are a bonus."
The Duke smiled and nodded in agreement. "They'll rue this day soon enough." He led the two out of the courthouse and toward the cordon of police and FBI who began to fire at them. Their bullets were no match for Arminius and Cabal, who stomped forward with the Duke safely behind them. Arminius lifted an overturned police car and tossed it into the barricade line, sending bystanders and gawkers running and screaming.
The Duke smirked as his bodyguards absorbed the shots coming his way. His eyes and hands started to glow as he channeled energy from his surroundings, carefully not taking any from his compatriots. When he was finished he roared with effort and channeled a wave of energy forward under his compatriots, tearing up street and ground and breaking the police line completely. Water mains and gas mains under the streets burst, the gas in some cases catching fire from his energy release. "We're lucky that they had my trial here, so far from the ZOG's metahuman lackies. By the time Justice Force or the Foundation find out about this, we'll be long gone."

Overhead a TARGET craft moved into position, bought from the famed criminal syndicate. It approached on it's preprogrammed coarse. As it came within twenty feet of landing, it suddenly stopped. "What's goin' on?!" Cabal shouted.
At that time it twisted and they could see that someone in a large robotic suit had grabbed it by the tail. "Sorry, no get out of jail card for you," Amy said from within her suit as she tore the tail fin off and lifted the crippled craft above her head. "Go directly to jail, do not collect two hundred dollars." With that she tossed the craft down. Arminius tried to catch it but failed to in time, getting smashed into the concrete by the force of the craft. Fuel began to leak from it's broken tank, as Amy had intended, and she brought up her right arm. "Let's see how well those sheets burn," she said as her flamethrower ignited. A tongue of flame extended outward and struck the fuel. The resulting explosion tossed Cabal and the White Duke into the courthouse and threw Amy back. She barely managed to bring her feet up to fire her jets before she would have hit the building behind her.

An inhuman roar filled the air as the wrecked remains of the TARGET chopper flew upward at her. Amy tried to catch it but failed, being knocked back into an office building with enough force that her suit recorded slight surface damage. The force of the hit knocked the air out of her, and she fell with the wreck to the ground.
"Well, if it ain't the Panzer Pyro," Cabal guffawed, ripping a light pole out of the concrete. "God damned race traitor, we're gonna tear you up."
"What makes you think that I'm white?" Amy retorted as she pushed the wreck away and got the suit back to it's feet.
"Well, maybe you're some subhuman who's working for the race traitor who built that thing, then," was the reply from the clearly dim-witted Cabal before he tossed the light pole at her. She caught it from him and tossed it to the side. She noticed Arminius running up on her and ignited her foot jets, barely avoiding the superpowered brute's tackle attempt. Her flamethrower nozzle ignited and flames covered him, burning at his white robe uniform and making him scream in pain and anger. Cabal jumped into her before Amy could move and both flew into the nearby building, blasting away chunks of plaster and brick. Wedged between two floors, Cabal pulled back a meaty fist and slammed it into Amy's helmet. Alerts went off and told her that she couldn't take too much of this punishment.

His next punch attempt she stopped by grabbing his wrist with her suit's left hand. The systems showed strain on the limb from holding back so strong a punch, so Amy acted quickly and delivered a punch of her own to Cabal, stunning him long enough to punch him again and then deliver a kick. His other hand finally shot up and snatched her suit's right ankle. He sneered.
So did Amy.
She ignited the right foot jet. Over his crotch.
Cabal's scream was inhuman. He let go of her and left himself open to a final punch that knocked him to the ground. Amy slipped out of the alcove created by their impact into the building and looked down at the writhing supervillain. "The next best thing to kicking someone in the balls is to set their balls on fire," she commented with a cruel grin on her face, jumping out of the building and down to the street over Cabal's fallen form. "And hopefully I've made it so that you can't produce more children. Big day for Humanity if I did that."
A warning sound went off in her helmet and drew Amy's attention. Her suit registered a power draw and she realized it was coming from the White Duke. She turned to see him holding a young black girl by the arm as she squealed and tried to get away. "I can siphon energy from my surroundings and channel it," he proclaimed, "and that includes bio-energy." His hand holding the girl began to glow and the girl's struggling grew weaker. She began to slump over. "I want a clear path out of the city or the girl dies. Am I clear?"

"If you hurt that girl, I'll burn you to a crisp," Amy replied coldly.
"Don't worry about that. If I kill her, it'll mean more energy to destroy you too," the Duke retorted. "Now, get out of here or the nigger girl dies."
"Don't say that word!"
The new voice had spoken gruffly, and their attention turned to a nearby bystander, a tall and large man in khaki shorts and a red shirt. His bearded face was locked in an angry scowl, and he seemed strangely unafraid of the proximity of both Arminius and the White Duke, unlike most of the bystanders. "I. HATE. THAT. WORD," the man said.
Amy was surprised to realize she recognized the man, one of her online friends she had met on a trip to Florida back in her college days. Steve?
"What word? Nigger?" The Duke laughed. "Well, too bad. If you don't like how I talk, go on home to your mommy and daddy and let real white men stand up for the white race. Nigger-lover."
Steve tossed away an empty package of some sort, which looked a lot like a snack bag of milk chocolate M&Ms, and his fists clenched. His eyes focused intently on the White Duke. "I hate racists. I hate your petty stupidity. I hate what you are, what you stand for. You make me so.... ANGRY."
The White Duke began to laugh, as did Arminius. But before either could act, Steve bent over a bit, bringing his arms up as if trying to restrain something. His eyes focused again on the Duke and Amy got the feeling something bad was going to happen.

And then he began to grow.
As a growl began to grow within his throat, his body's muscles bulged, growing thicker and stronger with every second. Soon he had gained two feet in height, with massive feet at least four feet long, maybe five. His head had grown but now seemed small on his massive hulk of a torso. His shirt and shorts ripped away, revealing another pair of black shorts underneath that seemed to stretch with his new growth.
Amy's response was a muttered "Oh SHIT."
The growth process finished, his voice was much deeper and more animalistic. "STEVE SMASH PUNY RACISTS!!!," he bellowed, enough to make some nearby windows shatter in their sills.
"Arminius!" The White Duke's stern voice brought the recovered supervillain back to his senses. He charged the hulking beast, drawing his fist back to give it a strong punch to the chest.
Steve grabbed Arminius' fist in mid-swing wth his left hand. Arminius cried out in pain as Steve's larger hand started to crush his. He drew back for another punch, but didn't land it before Steve connected with one of his own. Amy watched in awe as a single blow of her friend's giant fist sent Arminius flying backward at high speed. He crashed through one building, then another, then another... Amy flew upwards and soon got an angle to see that Arminius had stopped a city block away, in the middle of a bank building. He wasn't moving.

The White Duke had held onto the girl even tighter and was clearly filled with fright as Steve advanced on him. Just before the giant could get to him Cabal came out of nowhere, tackling the giant and knocking him into the nearby building. As Steve recovered in time to have Cabal jump on him and begin to pound on him, Amy saw her chance and fired up her stun gun. "Sorry, kid, but it won't hurt that much," she muttered as she fired it at the Duke. Unprepared to absorb it's energy, he and the girl both cried out as it's energies struck their bodies. The girl became unconscious and the Duke nearly so, letting go of her and stumbling to the side. A cop ran from the crowd and snatched the girl up before the Duke could recover, relying on the cover Amy was offering from above.
Suddenly Cabal was flying straight up in the air, courtesy of a punch. Steve growled and, after squatting to gather strength and grabbing the wreck of an abandoned bus, he jumped after Cabal. Amy looked up and used her sensors to see what happened.
Cabal had barely begun to recover when Steve met him in mid-air and smacked him with the bus, a full swing that sent Cabal flying to the northwest at a speed, well, Amy was certain he'd probably make it well into the countryside before he made a rough landing.

And then Steve came down. Hard. He landed on the concrete and it buckled for several feet around him, damaging most of the road. He turned his attentions to the fallen Duke. Amy realized that if he could do all that to superpowered brutes like Arminius and Cabal.... he'd turn a "normal" build Human like the Duke - or her - into pulp.Oh crap. I shouldn't have brought up the "Me-Pulp" thing to Yancy today, she thought as she stepped forward to stop her friend from murdering the racist metahuman. She got between Steve and the fallen Duke. "He's down, Steve. I can't let you kill him."
"Grr.... Steve smash racist. Robot thing move or get smashed." He thrust a massive fist into a massive hand.
Amy gulped as he got closer. Oh God I'm going to die went through her head as she brought up her right hand. "I warned you," she said before firing the flamethrower there.
The flames licked at the figure and Steve backed away for a moment, smacking his hands at the flames. "Fire BAD!," he growled angrily. He brought his hands together in a powerful clap. A massive rush of wind didn't just knock out the flames coming from the flamethrower, but they threw Amy back into the nearest building, leaving an indent of her suit there.

She had no time to get out of the way before Steve grabbed her, lifting her robot suit by the neck with his arm. He squeezed and Amy looked nervously at the helmet's base as it began to move inward, crackling sounds coming from her robot suit's audio systems. And she didn't need them to hear the "STEVE CRUSH PUNY ROBOT THING!" that her foe bellowed.
Suddenly he went flying to the side and Amy fell on her butt, or more exactly her suit's butt. A figure was standing in front of her, tall and big if not quite as large as Steve in his superpowered form. The figure, obviously a he, was wearing a military-like uniform that stretched over his massive figure.
Behind him, a hoverjet of some sort had landed, and there were five more figures all standing in the same military fatigues and a sixth hovering in mid-air. The one that had hit Steve extended a large hand toward her. "Name's Rob Dalton," he said. "Call me Elephant."
As she took it, one of the others spoke up with a clear English accent. "Rob Wilson, field leader. We're SG-14 and we're here to help."
A loud roar made all heads turn. Steve was on his feet again, massive fists flexing and a vicious, drooling snarl of rage on his face.
"Glad you came," Amy said to them. "With your help we'll actually live through this and he'll probably manage to just maim us and destroy half of the city instead of crushing me to pulp and destroying the whole thing," she added wryly.

American Conservatism is about the exercise of personal responsibility without state interference in the lives of the citizenry..... unless, of course, it involves using the bludgeon of state power to suppress things Conservatives do not like.

The inhuman roar was heard through much of Atlanta as the colossal being Steve sprinted toward his targets. Amy jumped into mid-air, discharging her stun gun at him. He shrugged off the electrical pulses and was only stopped by a punch from Dalton, who snarled in effort as the two began to grapple. One of Steve's massive feet came up and kicked Dalton in the stomach, making him double over and opening him up to a punch that sent him flying into the twentieth floor of a nearby building.

A powerful discharge of electricity hit Steve from the side. "Vapin' Vinny" Valentino stood in front of the massive hulk, his eyes and hands arcing with electricity. Standing beside him was another Caucasian-toned figure with a rounder face. Twin blades sprung out from a mechanism fixed to his wrists, made of reinforced titanium alloy. "Over here you ugly brute!" Fima Galkine, a.k.a. "Carvin' Marvin'", called out with a distinctive Russian accent.
Steve's response to the shocking was to heft a Ford Explorer into his arms and toss it. As Fima and Vinny jumped out of the way, Amy intercepted it in mid-air, slamming it back into Steve. He didn't catch it in time and it knocked him into a storefront, causing glass and plaster to shatter and tearing clothing from where it had been on display. A gunshot rang out and hit the Explorer's gas tank, causing it to explode inside the building.
Amy turned back and frowned at Wilson, who was now holding a pistol sidearm. "Are you trying to cause more damage and casualties?"
Wilson looked up at her. "That's only a samplin' of what this thing can do, girl, we've got to keep him off-balanced and knock him out before...."
Before a bewildered Amy could ask how he knew she was a female, the ruined husk of the Explorer flew back out of the burning storefront, straight at Wilson. The flying SG-14 member, an Asian male with long dark hair, snatched him out of harm's way at the last moment. Steve advanced out of the store-front at a full run, snarling and growling and heading straight for Vinny. Vinny's electrical discharges struck him again and again but did not seem to slow him.

Amy swooped down and landed a punch in mid-air on Steve. She went to punch him a second time and took a solid hit to the chest of her suit that sent a wave of pain and nausea through her. She flew backward uncontrollably and slammed into the nearest building, going through several walls before she managed to grab on, and even then she went out through the other side of the building before she stopped. She regained her bearings in mid-air and ignited her foot jets in time to avoid hitting the ground. Her eye went to the damage display for her suit, though the pressure on her chest and belly told her that the entire front end was dented in. What am I doing?, she thought to herself. This is way out of my league.
She crested the roof of the building and stood there for a moment. As the fighting near the courthouse came into view, she could see that Vinny and Wilson were pouring the firepower on while a blur began to circle Steve, causing a tornado that was lifting him off the ground. Steve's arm extended and the blur stopped, a figure with light tanned skin flying in the opposite direction and smacking into one of the remaining vehicles. He grabbed a nearby sedan by the rear bumper and hefted it toward Wilson and Vinny, who leapt out of the way wildly.
From behind, Fima leapt up onto the back of the beastial figure and dug one of his blades into Steve's back. Steve roared in pain and went to grab Fima, who leapt out of the way in time and somersaulted over Steve, slashing him from the right shoulder down to the side. Before Steve could attack him, Dalton charged in from the side and blind-sided him, knocking him into a building. Vinny got to his feet, and with Wilson poured the attack on once more.
Standing from where he'd been knocked down, the super-speed character finally spoke. "Soontir, keep an eye out from above, Marvin, you're back up in case he tries to get up. Everyone else, keep pouring it on, I think we've finally got him cornered."
"Got it, Marcao."

Content that the professionals had the situation handled for the moment, Amy turned her attention to the bystanders left. Flying over them, she pointed down alleys and streets and barked, "Clear the area! Go on, get out of here!"
An adolescent girl looked wide-eyed at her, and a number of other people stared in surprise. "Wow, the Panzer Pyro is a girl!" she squealed. "That's so cool!"Huh, how did they.... The answer came to Amy immediately. Steve had grabbed her suit by the neck... where the voice synthesizer was installed. Ah, dammit, she thought. "Just get out of here!" she shrieked at them. "Or that thing will squish you like a... like a peach!" Like a peach?! God damn, Amy, how could you sound any more Georgian?!
Nevertheless, the bystanders ran, and for a reason that became clear when Wilson and Vinny flew by Amy and slammed into the nearest building. She turned to see Arminius had recovered and was now heading for where Dalton was holding Steve down. He seemed to notice that the support fire had gone missing, because he let up for just a moment before Arminius hammer-punched him in the back of the neck. Dalton cried out and went flying went Steve's fist slammed into him.

"Out of the way, Spic," Arminius grumbled, knocking Marcao aside as he tried to get to Steve. "The race traitor is mine!" He rushed toward Steve and delivered a punch that knocked him back through the building and halfway into the next. Amy ignited her jets and flew after them.
"Death to enemies of the White Race!" Arminius screamed as he began to pound on Steve, who was still on the defensive. Amy frowned from where she was hovering above them and brought her flamethrower up, igniting it and covering Arminius in fire yet again. Arminius' tattered robes caught fire again, burning away to reveal muscled flesh beneath, and he let out an inhuman howl. He turned toward Amy. "You again?! I'll trash you all! ALL OF...."
Steve's fist slammed into his jaw at that point, knocking Arminius into the next building and sending a shower of plaster and brick down. Amy watched Steve rush forward and lift Arminius up while the supervillain was stunned. "Steve crush!" he bellowed before smashing Arminius face-first into the concrete, splintering it for directions everywhere.

A charge of electricity struck at both at this point. Amy saw that Vinny had gotten back to his feet, electricity arcing through his arms and most of his balance on his right leg. He limped forward and channeled all of his power into both brutes.
Growling from the shocking, Steve suddenly snatched Arminius' arm and tossed him at Vinny. Vinny's injured leg kept him from moving out of the way in time, and the brutish supervillain slammed right into him, both flying back into the courthouse. They both collapsed and Soontir came to Vinny's aid.
Steve's fist shot up and deflected a dart-like projectile that had been fired from one of Wilson's guns. He frowned and loaded another dart in the gun as Steve charged at him. Realizing he would crush Wilson easily, Amy flew straight into Steve, tackling him and knocking him to the side for a moment. "Hold him still!" Wilson shouted, prompting Amy to grab him in an arm lock. "Enough of these tranqs should knock him out!"
Amy was trying, certainly, but her suit's warning systems were blinking like Christmas lights from the stress on her limbs as Steve overpowered the suit. She moaned from the growing pain in her arms as the feedback began to directly strain them, though she held on for dear life while Wilson fired a dart into his chest and began to load another one.
But the pain became too great and she let go just as Wilson fired the second dart. It made direct impact, but he had no time to even load a third before Steve had reached over and behind to grab her by the arms and throw her into Wilson. She had no time to stop herself before she slammed into Wilson and they both hit the ground. When she got up Amy saw he was barely moving.

Dalton was back up, recovered from Arminius' blow to his back, and was giving punch after punch to try and keep Steve off-balance. From overhead Soontir flew down, holding Fima by the arms. "Now!" Fima shouted, and Soontir dropped him onto Steve's back as he staggered backward from the rapid flurry of punches Dalton was throwing. His blades struck at Steve's back, adding to the pain and accompanying rage he was feeling.
Amy looked up to Soontir. "The only weapon I have that'd hurt him is a flamethrower. What's your excuse?"
He looked down at her and smirked. "All I can do is fly. What am I supposed to do, buzz around him like....."
Fima suddenly smacked into Soontir, sending both flying to the ground. Amy turned and saw Steve slamming away on Dalton, punch after punch landing on the SG-14 bruiser. Finally one powerful uppercut sent Dalton into the air again, straight up, and when he landed with a loud thud that shattered concrete Steve was waiting for him with a Dodge Ram in his hands. Dalton brought his arms up to defend himself and managed to deflect the first two smacks before the third one knocked him unconscious. Steve raised the truck over his head again to bring it down again, triumphantly growling, "Steve SMASH!!!".

Before he could bring the truck down, Amy flew up and slammed right into him to make him drop the truck, ramming him into the nearby building. She didn't have the strength to push him all the way through, so he was in an indent in the wall when she began to punch over and over, trying to do something to keep him off-balance.
But then his foot came up and kicked her suit in the mid-section, sending her flying backward as pain shot up through Amy's belly and hips. She hit the ground hard. As she brought her suit back to it's feet, Amy saw on her sensors that her suit was caved in at that point to the point that enough of the blow's force had gone through the suit and the padding to, well, she was certain she'd be black and blue there for a while.
"Steve smash puny robot thing!"
Amy looked up in time for a punch to hit her higher on the suit, crunching it in further and sending her into another building, where she collapsed to the ground. She had screamed at the impact from the pain it caused, which became obvious when she brought up her personal display and her suit's sensors confirmed that several ribs had been broken. She began to get up off her suit's belly when a kick hit her suit's helmet. It had been a light kick, so it didn't dent the helmet, but it did knock her backward and onto her back. A massive foot came down on the left leg of her suit and Amy screamed again, the leg being smashed in enough that it broke her leg. She looked up through the haze of pain and saw Steve looming over her through her visor view, a fist raised. He slammed it down on the helmet and caved it in partially. Well shit, I'm going to die....
With nothing else left to do, she shouted, "Steve, stop!"
Surprisingly, the beast stopped at her request. "I'm your friend!" Amy said in desperation. "You don't want to hurt me!"
At that point, with no other option, Amy hit the emergency release build into her suit's hand controls that detached her helmet. It popped off with a burst of air and revealed her head. She smiled painfully at him and said, "See? It's me, Amy."
The threatening fist began to lower. "Ammmyyy?"
"Yeah! You don't want to hurt me, do you?"
"Ammy... friieeend...." Steve backed off a bit. "But.... Ammy... hurt me...."
"I was just trying to keep you from hurting people, that's all."
For a moment he stood there, dumbfounded but at last tranquil. Then his eyes rolled into the top of his head and he slumped over, causing a rumble in the ground when he fell. Amy snatched her helmet and sat her battered suit up, slipping it back on as she looked to where Wilson was laying, his dart-gun steady in his right hand as he panted.Wow, I'm still alive, she thought. Overhead she saw an automated drone of some kind come by and lift her suit up with magnets, the insignia of SG-14 prominent on the drone's underbelly. I'm in no condition to refuse she thought as the drone brought her to the team's hoverjet.

Several hours later, Amy was in a bed in SG-14's HQ in Eastern Long Island, New York, a cast on her leg and taping over her ribs. Virtually the entire team was in the ward with her, with various injuries.
She had now been introduced to the entire team and their remote members, hacker Thomas Cyrzanski and team commander "Hotfoot", who was represented by a hovering black screen that had a green oscilliscope that followed his voice. None of them really knew who "Hotfoot" was, and she had teased them by asking if their original team name was "Hotfoot's Angels".
"The authorities have all four of the metahuman threats in custody," Hotfoot announced. "We owe a lot to you. How did you manage to slow down Big Steve like that?"
"Oh, just my feminine charm," she said. "So, when do I get to go home?"
"We'll use our stealth jet to return you to Atlanta tonight, Miss...."
"Chan," Amy answered Cyrzanski. "Just please don't call me that ridiculous 'Panzer Pyro' name."
"That's fair. Anyway, I had Thomas repair your suit and give it a few useful upgrades. You've got a few more options now than a light stun gun and a flamethrower."
"That's nice," Amy replied. "Mind if I ask you a few questions about this place and the team?"
"Go ahead, Miss Chan."
"Fine. Why the hovering voice screen, why 'Hotfoot', and why SG-14?"
"Umm, that's going to take a while...."

Three Days Later

Amy hobbled through the convenience store near her home to pick up some milk, getting some help from a kind gentlemen. The city was abuzz with the news of it's first major superbeing clash, which had dominated all the papers, including the Panzer Pyro's part. She had gained an even more iconic status now.
And they also knew she was a she thanks to the voice synthesizer breakdown, so Amy had to deal with the added irritation of flyers from desperate guys offering their love and affection. She paid for her milk and was walking out the door when she noticed that the one girl's marriage proposal flier to the Panzer Pyro was still up. Looking closer, she saw that someone had scribbled on the paper "I'm bi!" with a smiley face. Not knowing and not caring if someone had written it to tease the girl for not removing it after the news of the Pyro's gender had come out or if the girl was really bisexual and still wanted to marry her, Amy went out to her van, where Yancy was in the driver's seat. "So, everybody knows you're a girl now. They're starting to compare you to RocketGirl!"
Amy shot him an angry glare. "Drive," she mumbled, eager to get home and finish recovering. She still had a city to protect, after all, even if the people in it constantly annoyed her like this.

The End.

”A Radical is a man with both feet planted firmly in the air.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt

American Conservatism is about the exercise of personal responsibility without state interference in the lives of the citizenry..... unless, of course, it involves using the bludgeon of state power to suppress things Conservatives do not like.